Tough Bond
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Tough Bond |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | Swahili , English subtitles |
| Publishing year | 2013 |
| length | 83 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Anneliese Vandenberg , Austin Pack |
| script | Anneliese Vandenberg , Austin Pack |
| production | Sam Citron , Brian Hodges |
| music |
Jeff Gibbs , Bob Golden |
| camera | Anneliese Vandenberg , Austin Pack |
| cut | Sam Citron , Anneliese Vandenberg , Austin Pack |
Tough Bond is a documentary about street children in the slums of Kenya . The title refers to an adhesive that is widespread in Africa and is also often used for so-called sniffing .
action
The film shows the daily vicious circle of poverty, unsteadiness and impoverishment on the streets and garbage dumps of the cities, from which there seems to be hardly any escape. Tales of suffering from Isiolo , Meru and Nairobi are told based on three fates . At the beginning and the end, as the prologue and epilogue of the film, in contrast to the fate of the streets, a world is sketched in which it is also bitterly poor and meager, but in which the protective mechanisms of the family seem to be effective despite all the adversities.
You can see happy Turkana children in a barren, withered wasteland on the shores of Lake Turkana spending their day in naive play. At the end of the film, your father will complain of his poverty due to the ever-increasing drought, which does not rule out the possibility of common starvation. The other children in the film live on the streets, calling themselves “survivors”. Sinbad (16) from Isiolo is one of the leading figures among street children. With his meager earnings as a street cleaner, he supports his grandmother, who raised him as an HIV orphan. Sinbad sees himself in a double existence. In the city he is a street boy, in the country a “farmer boy”. He tries to face his meager existence, but like his friends he hangs on the sniffing bottle.
The Turkana girl Akai (17) lives with her husband Peter (20) on the streets of Meru and on her husband's small family farm. Here, too, the future prospects seem rather dubious, which are shaped by illusions and HIV .
The third episode leads to the boss of a street gang in Nairobi . Anto (23) is a "war invalid" in the street fight, who has survived despite considerable damage to body and soul and praises the solidarity among his own kind and laments the ignorance of society towards the street children. The filmmakers also interview the Kenyan manufacturer of the adhesive "Tough Bond", who only half-heartedly admits the abuse, but estimates that around 15 percent of its monthly production of over 40 tons is sold on to street children by its customers.
The life of street children seems inevitable for a long time to come, especially since politicians, like the Kenyan Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka interviewed in the film, simply deny the existence of street children in Nairobi. The film closes by pointing out the only visible protection against this fate: undestroyed families.
production
Tough Bond was produced by Village Beat, a non-profit art project. All profits from the film go directly to projects established in connection with that film.
criticism
"'Tough Bond is one of those films that feels like something you can only endure once. It doesn't feel like a call to action as much as it does a plaintive query as to just what the hell can possibly be done about this kind of hell, which seems utterly pervasive and insurmountable. ' ( Tough Bond is one of those films that you can only endure once. It's not just a call to action, it's also a reproachful indictment of what the hell you can do against this utterly hopeless hell. "
"" At it's heart Tough Bond is about relationships. The relationship between a mother and her child; the relationship between a community and its children; the relationship between a government and its most vulnerable members of society. ... Tough Bond is a tough watch, but it's essential viewing. " ( Actually, “Tough Bond” is about relationships. The relationship between mother and child, the relationship between a society and the children, the relationship between a government and the most vulnerable members of society. ... "Tough Bond" is hard to endure but it is important to see him. "